Existing wireless networking standards, such as 802.11, 802.15, and Wimedia utilize CSMA (carrier sense multiple access) protocols to transmit data using omni-directional antennas. However, when data rates increase, the use of such standards becomes impractical. For example, the use of the CSMA protocol is inefficient, since each data packet header comprises a higher percentage of overhead compared to the transmitted data, as the data rate increases. Furthermore, the required transmit power using an omni-directional antenna is not practical when the data is transmitted at higher rates. In addition, introduction of faster versions of these wireless networking standards require that their corresponding protocol be backward compatible to each of the previously existing versions. As a consequence, a new version of such a wireless networking standard may be burdened with additional software constraints and/or requirements.
The limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with some aspects of the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.